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Article
Publication date: 12 June 2017

David Crepaz-Keay

The purpose of this paper is to look at peer support in the context of broader communities.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to look at peer support in the context of broader communities.

Design/methodology/approach

It builds on the author’s experience working with the Mental Health Foundation of developing delivering and evaluating several self-management and peer support initiatives in a variety of settings with a range of different peer groups. It will consider what constitutes a peer and a community, and explore the notion of community solutions for community problems.

Findings

Peer support in community settings has the capacity to address social isolation, build skills and self-esteem and give individuals a better quality of life – it can also add value to whole communities and reframe the way entire groups are considered within them. It has the ability to be both more accessible and less stigmatising and thus reach more people. This also offers community based peer support as a contributor to preventing the deterioration of mental health and potentially reducing the impact of mental ill-health.

Social implications

The author needs to think more in terms of whole community and get better at improving how the author measures and articulates this community benefit. This will allow us to make better decisions about how best to apply resources for long term whole community gain. Peer support and peer leadership needs to be at the heart of this process.

Originality/value

This paper places a familiar approach in a different setting placing peer support firmly outside services and within comunities.

Details

Mental Health and Social Inclusion, vol. 21 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-8308

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 25 July 2008

Rhonda L.P. Koster

Towns and cities across Canada face rapidly changing economic circumstances and many are turning to a variety of strategies, including tourism, to provide stability in their…

Abstract

Towns and cities across Canada face rapidly changing economic circumstances and many are turning to a variety of strategies, including tourism, to provide stability in their communities. Community Economic Development (CED) has become an accepted form of economic development, with recognition that such planning benefits from a more holistic approach and community participation. However, much of why particular strategies are chosen, what process the community undertakes to implement those choices and how success is measured is not fully understood. Furthermore, CED lacks a developed theoretical basis from which to examine these questions. By investigating communities that have chosen to develop their tourism potential through the use of murals, these various themes can be explored. There are three purposes to this research: (1) to acquire an understanding of the “how” and the “why” behind the adoption and diffusion of mural-based tourism as a CED strategy in rural communities; (2) to contribute to the emerging theory of CED by linking together theories of rural geography, rural change and sustainability, and rural tourism; and (3) to contribute to the development of a framework for evaluating the potential and success of tourism development within a CED process.

Two levels of data collection and analysis were employed in this research. Initially, a survey of Canadian provincial tourism guides was conducted to determine the number of communities in Canada that market themselves as having a mural-based tourism attraction (N=32). A survey was sent to these communities, resulting in 31 responses suitable for descriptive statistical analysis, using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). A case study analysis of the 6 Saskatchewan communities was conducted through in-depth, in person interviews with 40 participants. These interviews were subsequently analyzed utilizing a combined Grounded Theory (GT) and Content Analysis approach.

The surveys indicated that mural development spread within a relatively short time period across Canada from Chemainus, British Columbia. Although tourism is often the reason behind mural development, increasing community spirit and beautification were also cited. This research demonstrates that the reasons this choice is made and the successful outcome of that choice is often dependent upon factors related to community size, proximity to larger populations and the economic (re)stability of existing industry. Analysis also determined that theories of institutional thickness, governance, embeddedness and conceptualizations of leadership provide a body of literature that offers an opportunity to theorize the process and outcomes of CED in rural places while at the same time aiding our understanding of the relationship between tourism and its possible contribution to rural sustainability within a Canadian context. Finally, this research revealed that both the CED process undertaken and the measurement of success are dependent upon the desired outcomes of mural development. Furthermore, particular attributes of rural places play a critical role in how CED is understood, defined and carried out, and how successes, both tangible and intangible, are measured.

Details

Advances in Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-522-2

Article
Publication date: 5 October 2022

Tess A. Carlson and Jessica L. Liddell

Community support is an integral aspect of health and well-being for Indigenous peoples. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the valuable role of community support for…

Abstract

Purpose

Community support is an integral aspect of health and well-being for Indigenous peoples. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the valuable role of community support for Indigenous women specifically, who experience reproductive health disparities at alarming rates. This study helps fill an important gap in Indigenous scholarship by centering the resilience of women and Indigenous tribes and by using a framework that is consistent with Indigenous holistic views of health.

Design/methodology/approach

The data for this paper was collected as part of a larger study exploring the reproductive health experiences of a state-recognized Gulf Coast tribe. A total of 31 semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals who identify as women and as members of this tribe using qualitative descriptive methodology. This method is recommended for research with Indigenous communities. A community advisory board with representatives from this tribe provided feedback throughout the project.

Findings

Themes expressed by participants included Community Closeness and Support; Community Support in Raising Children; Informal Adoption Common; and Community Values of Mutual Aid and Self-Sufficiency. The findings support current literature noting the value of generational and communal ties for Indigenous peoples. Implications of this research include the need to value and support community networks in programs serving tribes, in addition to meaningfully including Indigenous communities in developing interventions.

Originality/value

This paper centers Indigenous women’s resilience, approaches the health and well-being of Indigenous tribes holistically and helps to fill an important gap in literature describing informal adoption (outside the legal system) in state-recognized Indigenous communities.

Details

International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, vol. 16 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4902

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 November 2003

Deborah Quilgars

Care and support agendas have tended to focus on the need to develop effective services to meet individualised needs within communities of interest. In contrast, community

Abstract

Care and support agendas have tended to focus on the need to develop effective services to meet individualised needs within communities of interest. In contrast, community development and regeneration policy have concentrated on the needs of the broader ‘community’ but with little regard to support and care. Rarely do these two important policy domains meet in practice. A three‐year pilot initiative, the Hull Community Care Development Project, aimed to develop the capacity of local communities to respond to their own support and ‘community care’ needs. An independent evaluation documented how such an approach could begin to bridge community and care, and how this produced new challenges, communities prioritising broad neighbourhood issues over specific care and support concerns.

Details

Housing, Care and Support, vol. 6 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1460-8790

Article
Publication date: 4 September 2019

Emma O’Brien, Thomas M. Cooney and Per Blenker

Entrepreneurship education has moved from an elitist view focussing on a start-up and picking-the-winners philosophy towards a broader enterprising behaviour approach; recognising…

1217

Abstract

Purpose

Entrepreneurship education has moved from an elitist view focussing on a start-up and picking-the-winners philosophy towards a broader enterprising behaviour approach; recognising entrepreneurship as an activity of relevance for everybody. The purpose of this paper is to extend this development and identify how university entrepreneurial ecosystems can be expanded to support communities that are under-represented in entrepreneurship.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on an integrative literature review (Torraco, 2005), this paper draws together and synthesises literature from the field of entrepreneurship, higher education studies and under-represented communities in an integrated fashion, leading to the development of a new conceptual model.

Findings

This paper challenges the traditional role of universities in supporting entrepreneurship as focussing mainly on economic growth and new venture creation, and identifies how universities are also positioned to provide greater civic support to entrepreneurial learning amongst under-represented communities. Through a critical analysis of the literature, the conceptual model proposed identifies six key considerations in the expansion of university entrepreneurial ecosystems for under-represented communities.

Practical implications

There are currently 96.6m people at risk of poverty and social exclusion in the EU (OECD, 2017) and an estimated 43.1m Americans (US Census Bureau, 2017). This paper explores how university entrepreneurial ecosystems can be expanded to support minority and disadvantaged communities who are under-represented in terms of entrepreneurial activity.

Originality/value

Given that there is little research regarding how universities might activate inclusive entrepreneurship initiatives amongst under-represented communities, this paper expands existing knowledge as it identifies the key considerations encompassing university-led community collaborative enterprise support.

Article
Publication date: 11 July 2019

Chao-Min Chiu, Chia-Yun Fu, Wei-Yu Lin and Chieh-Fan Chen

The purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of how to promote members’ beneficial behaviors toward other members and toward the virtual community (VC). The…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of how to promote members’ beneficial behaviors toward other members and toward the virtual community (VC). The authors extend Ray et al.’s (2014) framework by developing a more precise definition of community embeddedness, and determining how such embeddedness relates to social support and community engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors test the proposed research model using data collected from 333 users of online social support communities/groups dedicated to sharing knowledge about pregnancy and child care. Partial least squares is used to analyze the measurement and structural models.

Findings

The study shows that embeddedness and engagement are significant determinants of willingness to help others and willingness to help the community. Embeddedness has a strong, positive effect on engagement. Social support positively affects community identification and embeddedness. However, community identification does not have a significant effect on engagement.

Research limitations/implications

Some of the findings, such as the relative importance of embeddedness in fostering willingness to help the community and the relative importance of engagement in fostering willingness to help others, might not be generalizable to VCs where members join for fun and sharing interests.

Practical implications

Although knowledge contributors could self-derive some drivers of embeddedness and engagement, managers or hosts of VCs should develop strategies and mechanisms to provide or enhance the value they add to knowledge sharing and other beneficial behaviors, even though such added value might be largely intangible.

Social implications

Social support plays an important role in shaping an individual’s embeddedness within a VC. Managers of VCs should develop strategies to stimulate exchanges of support among members.

Originality/value

The authors believe that community embeddedness plays a more important role than engagement in shaping the VC’s success and effectiveness. However, the extant VC literature has indicated a relatively weak understanding of the notion of community embeddedness. This study intends to fill that void.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 43 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 January 2019

Amanda Koontz, Linda Walters and Sarah Edkin

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which an innovative higher education women’s faculty mentoring community model fosters supportive networking and career-life…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which an innovative higher education women’s faculty mentoring community model fosters supportive networking and career-life balance. The secondary goal is to better understand the factors that both promote and limit retention of women faculty at a large, metropolitan university.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper examines data from the survey component of an applied research project on understanding and supporting the complex processes of women faculty’s pathways toward self-defined success. Adopting a mixed method research approach, this manuscript focuses on the survey questions related to four key issues related to retention: mentor experiences, gender-based obstacles, a sense of support and community, and goal attainment. In addition to quantitatively examining shifts in perceptions between pre- and post-survey Likert scale questions, the authors performed a qualitative analysis of the supplemental open-ended questions, utilizing a social constructionist lens to further understand perceived influences of the mentoring community on these issues.

Findings

The findings revealed qualitatively important shifts in increased awareness surrounding mentoring, gender-based obstacles, interpersonal support, and career-life choices, offering critical insight into the intangible, and thus often difficult to capture, forms of support a mentoring community model can offer women faculty. Findings also reveal how definitions of success can be integrated into community mentoring models to support retention and empowering women faculty.

Research limitations/implications

This study is limited by its exploratory nature with one mentoring community cohort. Ongoing implementations are in place to increase the participant size and further test the mentoring model, while future research is encouraged to implement and expand the research to additional higher education institutions.

Practical implications

This research offers a model that can be implemented across higher education institutions for all faculty, along with offering insight into particular points that can be emphasized to increase perceptions of support, offering concrete mentoring options.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the advancement of mentoring models, helping to address concerns for better supporting and advancing women faculty, with implications for further supporting marginalized faculty. It offers insight into the ways in which a mentoring model can help to address key issues of retention. Additionally, analyzing quantitative and qualitative findings concurrently allowed for insight into areas that may otherwise be overlooked due to seemingly contradictory or non-significant statistical findings.

Details

Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-7003

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 July 2020

Máire O Sullivan and Brendan Richardson

This paper aims to highlight the role of consumption communities as a self-help support group to ameliorate loneliness. The authors suggest that the self-help element of…

1077

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to highlight the role of consumption communities as a self-help support group to ameliorate loneliness. The authors suggest that the self-help element of consumption communities has been overlooked because of a focus on communities pursuing hegemonic masculinity. Instead, the authors focus on a female-led and – dominated consumption community.

Design/methodology/approach

A longitudinal ethnography was undertaken with the aim of understanding consumer behaviour in a “hyper-feminine” environment. Participant observation, depth interviews and netnography were carried out over five years within the Knitting community, focussing on an Irish Stitch ‘n’ Bitch group.

Findings

A dimension of consumption communities has been overlooked in the extant literature; this female-led and -dominated community functions as a self-help support group used as a “treatment” for loneliness. It also demonstrates all the characteristics of a support group.

Research limitations/implications

This study offers a framework with which new studies of community consumption can be examined or existing studies can be re-examined, through rather than cases of loneliness and self-help support groups.

Practical implications

Marketers have an opportunity to build supportive consumption communities that provide a safe space for support where commerce and brand-building can also occur. Groups aimed at ameliorating loneliness may wish to consider integration of the consumption community model.

Originality/value

Calls have been made for a reconceptualisation of consumption communities as current typologies seem inadequate. This paper responds with a critical examination through the lens of the self-help support group, while also taking steps towards resolving the gender imbalance in the consumption community literature. The paper explores loneliness, a previously underexamined motivator for consumption community membership.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 54 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 May 2013

Allen C. Johnston, James L. Worrell, Paul M. Di Gangi and Molly Wasko

The purpose of this paper is to examine how participation in an online health community provides for direct benefits in the form of information utility and social support and an…

3860

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how participation in an online health community provides for direct benefits in the form of information utility and social support and an indirect influence on perceptions of patient empowerment.

Design/methodology/approach

A multi‐method approach was conducted involving interviews with moderators of 18 online health communities and a field survey of 153 online health community participants.

Findings

Online health community participation leads to direct benefits in the form of information utility and social support and that information utility also helps to shape perceptions of patient empowerment among community participants.

Research limitations/implications

This research calls into question the role of online health communities as a support mechanism to empower patients to take ownership over their healthcare treatment. Online health communities support the development of patient empowerment by creating and disseminating information that can be used to gain an understanding of a patient's health condition.

Practical implications

Purveyors of online health communities must be able to ensure a high level of engagement among community participants that allows for each member to elicit outcomes such as information utility, while simultaneously guarding against undesirable circumstances that may prohibit a positive experience.

Social implications

Medical professionals can utilize the results of this study to develop strategies for incorporating online health communities into patient care. Specifically, medical professionals can use these results to identify relevant communities and engage in information sharing to ensure relevant and accurate information is disseminated to patients as they seek out information concerning their health conditions.

Originality/value

As an ever growing segment of the population looks to online health communities for health information seeking and emotional support, we still know very little as to the type of support that is provided by these forums and how benefits obtained from participation help to shape patient empowerment outcomes. This study determined that information utility and social support are two benefits obtained by online health community participants and that information utility also helps to shape perceptions of patient empowerment among community participants.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 26 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 October 2012

Peter Bates, Kathy Hardwick, Katie Sanderson, Raschel Sanghera and Jeannie Clough

This article aims to investigate some of the pitfalls and potential of supporting people on a one‐to‐one basis in their community in order to stimulate improvements in practice.

893

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to investigate some of the pitfalls and potential of supporting people on a one‐to‐one basis in their community in order to stimulate improvements in practice.

Design/methodology/approach

The article discusses a range of situations via several vignettes and draws advice out of these for support workers and their managers. Staff are encouraged to reflect on their approach to providing support in community settings in the context of person‐centred planning and Wolfensberger's theories.

Findings

Staff are encouraged to plan carefully so that they can hold back from doing too much for the person, engage as full participants rather than passive bystanders, and seek opportunities for the person to develop informal connections in the community. Managers are encouraged to develop risk management systems that promote contact with ordinary citizens and a culture of community participation through training and mentoring support staff.

Originality/value

Whilst most support staff willingly recount stories that illustrate the complexity of providing 1:1 support in the community, they have minimal access to publications, training or supervision on this topic. The article will stimulate further reflection by managers and front line staff so that people are supported more effectively in the community of their choice.

Details

Tizard Learning Disability Review, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-5474

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 170000